


Death's Rejects

by Starchains



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4826642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starchains/pseuds/Starchains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Viper is the only friend Skull has. If helping her means revealing things he's kept hidden, that's a price he'll just have to pay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death's Rejects

"The Varia only accepts missions with a 90% or higher chance of success. The best estimates put a rescue at 50%. Besides, if he got himself captured, he obviously wasn't Quality. There's no profit in attempting to retrieve a useless asset." Only years of experience allowed Skull to read the distress in Viper's voice.

"Can't the Vongola do anything? Negotiate for him?" He knew that the Vongola was influential and powerful enough to buy back a prisoner, even one as valuable as Prince Belphegor.

"They won't negotiate. Nono refuses to start a war to get back a replaceable resource, especially one that attempted a coup against him and will most likely be badly damaged, possibly beyond repair." Now there was anger. Rarely had Nono's pacifistic ways infuriated Mammon – only when they cut into her potential profit – but this had obviously crossed a line. To Skull, it just sounded like a petty attempt at revenge for an attack that had happened a decade ago.

"I bet Xanxus wasn't happy," he commented. The Varia Boss was famous for both his temper and his possessiveness, and Skull knew through Viper of his not-so-secret soft spot for the Varia's youngest Officer.

"The repair bills for the mansion haven't been this high since he was learning how to use his guns. He's threatening to make the 'Independent' part of the name literal. Either by splitting from the Vongola or consuming it."

Skull winced. "That wouldn't be good." That was an understatement; it would drag the entirety of the Mafia into a bloody war. He finished his drink – he could have alcohol again! Being an adult rocked - and stood. "Don't worry about a thing, Viper."

"What…" Viper choked on her strawberry milk, lost for words. By the time she had gathered her thoughts, Skull was out the door.

The Pesca Famiglia was known for its brute force method of dealing, in both fighting and politics. So when Bel had killed the brother of the leader in a routine mission, they had retaliated not by demanding sanctions against the Vongola, which they could have argued they were entitled to, but by kidnapping the Prince while he was out shopping; filling the changing room he was in with an aerosolised sedative and moving his unconscious body while disguised as emergency responders. As well as Bel, four other shoppers were knocked out, and two were killed. The Pesca weren't known for caring about collateral damage. That was also the reason Bel hadn't seen the attack coming; involving civilians was seen as being at the very least in incredibly poor taste. At worst it could put the Vindice on your back, something that any sane Mafioso, and most of the insane ones, went a long way to avoid.

Bel had been missing for over a week. For the first three days the expectation had been that he would free himself, or at the very least find a way to communicate with his Family. After that, Varia policy was to consider him dead. For once in his life, Xanxus had been willing to disregard the Varia rules entirely and stage a rescue for his young Storm. The Ninth had prevented that with his tightly worded orders, but the situation was volatile in the extreme. If Nono, Xanxus, the Pesca, or Sawada so much as twitched wrong, the situation could go up faster than a bike leaking petrol on amateur night, taking the whole of the underworld with it. Someone needed to do something fast. And Viper was fond of the Prince. Skull wasn't about to let his friend – and she was his friend, even if she didn't see him as such – lose one of the few human connections she had.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be my new project while I try to refresh my brain.


End file.
